Latest news with #Housley
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Post-special election audit comes up clean
About a dozen Lake County Board of Elections and Registration employees helped Voting System Technical Oversight Program officials conduct a post-election audit of the 2025 special election results. The election office volunteered for a post-election audit of its 2025 special school board elections held May 6 for Crown Point and Hobart school referendums, both of which passed. Ultimately, the ballots audited matched the tabulated election results. During the audit, the employees aimed for a 1% risk limit, which results in a 99% confidence level in the election results, said Matt Housley, VSTOP elections system audit specialist. 'We are going to be sampling and inspecting ballots, and we're going to be calculating whether the paper record matches the digital record. We're going to do that until the sample can give us confidence that the election result was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. A good analogy for the post-election audit process, Housley said, has been cooking soup. When cooking soup, the chef doesn't eat the whole pot to determine if the soup tastes good, Housley said. Instead, the chef takes a couple spoonfuls and adds to the recipe as needed with each taste, he said. 'That's exactly what we're going to be doing in a post-election audit. We take a sample of ballots. We make sure that sample of ballots matches up correctly, and as long as they match up correctly then we can infer that the entire election was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. Crown Point will use its referendum money to underscore its ability to hire and retain teachers with a competitive salary. Crown Point will also use the funding for academic programs, safety initiatives and to manage class sizes. For Hobart, the passage meant bus transportation could continue for another eight years. Hobart's referendum will raise about $21.6 million over the eight-year period and Crown Point's will raise $67.2 million over the same period. During the post-election audit, the VSTOP employees entered election information into the Stark Audit Tool, which was used to determine the amount of ballots needed to sample. Then, the election employees rolled a dice to come up with a random 20-digit seed number. The seed number allows for audits to be random and different every time, Housley said. The VSTOP officials put the seed number into the Stark Audit tool, which then generated a list of which ballots the employees should audit. For the two special elections, the employees had to audit 53 ballots. To be safe, Housley pulled 55 ballots to be audited. The election employees pulled the ballots the system generated for audit. Then, they handrolled through the voter-verified paper audit trail, which leaves a paper trail of each ballot cast at a voting machine, looking for the specific ballots to ensure the ballot matched what was tabulated. No voter information was on the ballots, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman. After about an hour, all the ballots matched what was recorded during the election. The audit came back with 100% accuracy, and was determined accurate after 50 ballots were audited. Fajman said the county volunteered to be audited because there were few special elections in 2025 and it allowed staff members to become familiar with the process, which in turn will help them answer voter questions in future elections. The county volunteered to be audited once before — in the 2022 general election — which was important to show voters transparency and 'how accurate the system was,' Fajman said. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jessica Messler, who is new to the office, said she enjoyed participating in the audit because it showed the accountability of the system. Rolling the dice to come up with the seed number allows for the audit to be random, Fajman said. After the audit was complete, Housley went into the system and changed the seed number by one digit and the system called for different ballots to be audited. 'This time, it was exciting because we already knew a little bit about it,' Fajman said. 'In the audit, we're seeing that what that person voted and selected is actually what was tabulated.' akukulka@
Chicago Tribune
28-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Post-special election audit comes up clean
About a dozen Lake County Board of Elections and Registration employees helped Voting System Technical Oversight Program officials conduct a post-election audit of the 2025 special election results. The election office volunteered for a post-election audit of its 2025 special school board elections held May 6 for Crown Point and Hobart school referendums, both of which passed. Ultimately, the ballots audited matched the tabulated election results. During the audit, the employees aimed for a 1% risk limit, which results in a 99% confidence level in the election results, said Matt Housley, VSTOP elections system audit specialist. 'We are going to be sampling and inspecting ballots, and we're going to be calculating whether the paper record matches the digital record. We're going to do that until the sample can give us confidence that the election result was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. A good analogy for the post-election audit process, Housley said, has been cooking soup. When cooking soup, the chef doesn't eat the whole pot to determine if the soup tastes good, Housley said. Instead, the chef takes a couple spoonfuls and adds to the recipe as needed with each taste, he said. 'That's exactly what we're going to be doing in a post-election audit. We take a sample of ballots. We make sure that sample of ballots matches up correctly, and as long as they match up correctly then we can infer that the entire election was correctly tabulated,' Housley said. Crown Point will use its referendum money to underscore its ability to hire and retain teachers with a competitive salary. Crown Point will also use the funding for academic programs, safety initiatives and to manage class sizes. For Hobart, the passage meant bus transportation could continue for another eight years. Hobart's referendum will raise about $21.6 million over the eight-year period and Crown Point's will raise $67.2 million over the same period. During the post-election audit, the VSTOP employees entered election information into the Stark Audit Tool, which was used to determine the amount of ballots needed to sample. Then, the election employees rolled a dice to come up with a random 20-digit seed number. The seed number allows for audits to be random and different every time, Housley said. The VSTOP officials put the seed number into the Stark Audit tool, which then generated a list of which ballots the employees should audit. For the two special elections, the employees had to audit 53 ballots. To be safe, Housley pulled 55 ballots to be audited. The election employees pulled the ballots the system generated for audit. Then, they handrolled through the voter-verified paper audit trail, which leaves a paper trail of each ballot cast at a voting machine, looking for the specific ballots to ensure the ballot matched what was tabulated. No voter information was on the ballots, said Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Director Michelle Fajman. After about an hour, all the ballots matched what was recorded during the election. The audit came back with 100% accuracy, and was determined accurate after 50 ballots were audited. Fajman said the county volunteered to be audited because there were few special elections in 2025 and it allowed staff members to become familiar with the process, which in turn will help them answer voter questions in future elections. The county volunteered to be audited once before — in the 2022 general election — which was important to show voters transparency and 'how accurate the system was,' Fajman said. Lake County Board of Elections and Registration Assistant Director Jessica Messler, who is new to the office, said she enjoyed participating in the audit because it showed the accountability of the system. Rolling the dice to come up with the seed number allows for the audit to be random, Fajman said. After the audit was complete, Housley went into the system and changed the seed number by one digit and the system called for different ballots to be audited. 'This time, it was exciting because we already knew a little bit about it,' Fajman said. 'In the audit, we're seeing that what that person voted and selected is actually what was tabulated.'
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tamera Mowry's Husband Bashed For Saying People 'Work The System' In Response To SNAP Reform
Tamera Mowry-Housley's husband Adam Housley shares his alleged experience with people who use food stamps in response to proposed changes to the SNAP program by President Donald Trump's administration. On Tuesday (Feb. 18), Housley detailed in a post on X his time working in his family-owned shop in his youth, where people would purchase 'crap food' with government assistance. 'As a kid who grew up in neighborhood grocery stores since I was 5, I can't tell you how many times I saw people come in and buy crap food for their kids with food stamps, then open the wallet and use cash for liquor, beer, wine and cigarettes,' he reflected. 'Then there were those who would repeatedly buy a lemon or lime, get the change, walk out the door throw them away and do it again. Until they had enough change to buy cigarettes or alcohol. As a kid it pissed me off because there are some people who could really use the help and then there are these others working the system.' Many replies questioned his desire to police the purchases of others, however, Housely defended his reaction. After being labeled a 'silver spoon leech with generational wealth handed to him, b**ching and moaning telling lies about moms on food stamps' by a social media user, Housley responded, 'Yeah not talking about moms on food stamps. I clearly defended helping families in need and clearly saw those taking advantage. Funny. Those taking advantage are the ones who hurt moms in need. Plus we've been helping families in need since I was a kid…you?' He asserted in another post, 'It's people like this that make me dislike social media. They jump to conclusions and judge completely missing the point. I clearly said 'when I was a kid' I worked the register from age 7-on and worked every holiday and yes grew up in the backroom of a family market. My parents didn't always have money, but they busted their asses and so did we as kids and made it into something. They've also given back to my community for damn near 50 years. You see sometimes stating facts isn't judging. Get a life.' According to the Associated Press, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the newly confirmed Health and Human Services secretary, and Brooke Rollins, the new Agriculture Secretary, have show support from limiting families who use SNAP benefits from purchasing certain items, including sugary snacks. 'The one place that I would say that we need to really change policy is the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches,' Kennedy explained on Fox News last week, per AP. 'There, the federal government in many cases is paying for it. And we shouldn't be subsidizing people to eat poison.' 'When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are they OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?' Rollins shared. 'These are all massive questions we're going to be asking and working on in the coming months and years.' The AP reported that, for the administration to make these changes, Congress would need to change the law, as the SNAP program is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), not HHS, and is administered through individual states. According to the USDA in 2023, SNAP served an average of 42.1 million participants per month. Federal SNAP spending totaled $112.8 billion and benefits averaged $211.93 per participant per month. View Adam Housley's responses to questions about his initial statement below. More from Tamera Mowry-Housley Insists "You Should Sit Down For This" In New Memoir Tamera Mowry-Housley's Niece Confirmed Among Victims In California Bar Shooting Brunch With The Ladies Of 'The Real' Revealed Just How Thankful They Are For Their Fans
